Hey Gophers fans:

Be sure to check out Thursday’s edition of the Strib. I’m finishing up a story about junior guard Lawrence Westbrook’s trip home to Arizona and what it means to his family, which experienced a serious accident in September. The story also touches on the way Tubby Smith helped Westbrook through everything.

Did you know that Westbrook is the second-leading scorer in the Big Ten? If you only count guys 6-feet or smaller. Penn State’s Talor Battle is 5-11 and averaging 19.4 points, topping the 6-foot Westbrook’s 14.1, the highest average on the team.

During my interview for Thursday’s story, Westbrook tried to scare me out of my trip to Phoenix for Saturday’s Louisville-Minnesota game. He said the last time he went home, a scorpion bit him, and he had to be taken to a hospital. He also told me that I’d have to shake out my shoes because that’s where they like to hide. I guess there are a bunch of Tarantulas and rattlers down there, too.

That just makes you appreciate Minnesota’s cold weather when you hear stories like that, right? Because we all know, none of those critters would ever survive up here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.